Search Results

  1. Cunliffe responds to Marty G

    Written By:  Tammy Gordon -  Date published: 1:45 pm, December 2nd, 2010 -  72 comments
    Categories: Economy
    Tags:

    Given the importance of this debate, I thought I’d just lift this straight from David Cunliffe’s post on  Red Alert:

    “I guess it’s all in a day’s work, but MartyG on The Standard misintrepeted my position on PPPs in this recent post.”

  2. Armstrong on Pike River

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 11:27 am, November 27th, 2010 -  71 comments
    Categories: Mining
    Tags:

    As the public and private mourning for the Pike River 29 continues, focus will begin to shift to how this event occurred with no less than five inquires soon to begin. John Armstrong has a very good article on the issues that will be in the spotlight. This is not about political point-scoring, it’s about preventing future tragedies. I ask for comments to be in that vein.

  3. Armstrong on Do Nothing Key’s big adventure

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 12:37 pm, November 20th, 2010 -  28 comments
    Categories: Economy, humour, john key, Media
    Tags: ,

    John Armstrong’s straight-faced piss-take of John Key’s holiday very important diplomatic mission to Japan last week is very very funny. Without a hint of irony, Armstrong reveals how Key achieved nothing, talked big only to be put in his place by the big boys, and filled in his diary that was devoid of important meetings with pissant PR.

  4. Game over Tolley

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 7:03 am, November 5th, 2010 -  161 comments
    Categories: dpf, education, national
    Tags: ,

    Anne Tolley has lost the debate on national standards.  The boycott looks set to gather strength, and even The Herald has come out against them.  The empirical evidence, academic consensus and weight of professional opinion has always been against standards.  The only ones still defending them are hacks and shills pushing a political agenda.

  5. National’s Privatisation Agenda Continues

    Written By:  Bunji -  Date published: 9:17 am, November 4th, 2010 -  25 comments
    Categories: bill english, health, prisons, public services, same old national
    Tags: , ,

    National are continuing their privatisation by stealth.  Hospitals services and a new prison are the current targets.  Tony Ryall, Judith Collins and Bill English are the ministers currently pushing their ideology in their respective areas.

  6. US midterms – deflation the risk so be afraid

    Written By:  Mike Smith -  Date published: 8:59 pm, November 3rd, 2010 -  23 comments
    Categories: Economy, referendum, us politics
    Tags:

    As predicted, the US midterms have not gone well for the Democrats, as they have lost control of the House of Representatives. But they retain a majority in the Senate, so some are predicting that the most likely outcome is a repeat of the gridlock of 1994, after a similar conservative revolt led by Rush […]

  7. Happy birthday Auckland

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 12:01 am, November 1st, 2010 -  8 comments
    Categories: auckland supercity, len brown, supercity
    Tags: , , ,

    Happy Birthday Auckland!  The new Supercity is now in effect, with Mayor Len Brown at the helm.  How is the tension between a left wing mayor representing a third of the country, and a right wing central government, going to play out?  The Nats can’t afford to let Auckland fail…

  8. The dust settles on the Hobbit fiasco

    Written By:  IrishBill -  Date published: 9:54 am, October 31st, 2010 -  37 comments
    Categories: business
    Tags: , , , , , , , ,

    Eventually the dust was going to settle on the Hobbit fiasco and the truth was going to come out.

    Fortunately the media has done a bloody good job of making sure that happened.

    So what have they been saying?

  9. Friday fun: in praise of public transport

    Written By:  Zetetic -  Date published: 2:30 pm, October 29th, 2010 -  3 comments
    Categories: humour
    Tags:

    Another 5-second film. Joyce might want his holiday highway Road of Personal Significance but has he considered the benefits of buses for crime fighting?

    And Glenn Beck loses it after some web comic guys launch their self-published book on Amazon and beat him out of first place.

  10. Meanwhile, elsewhere.

    Written By:  Bill -  Date published: 1:10 pm, October 29th, 2010 -  22 comments
    Categories: capitalism, class war, Economy
    Tags: , , ,

    28% of the population raised out of poverty.

    50% growth over a five and a half year period

    8.2% growth per annum

    Unemployment down from 21.5% to 8.5%

    Inflation adjusted wages up by more than 40%

  11. Harawira off foreshore committee

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 9:06 am, October 28th, 2010 -  7 comments
    Categories: accountability, maori party, Parliament
    Tags: , ,

    Select committees are very important. They take Bills after first reading, hear submissions, and recommend alterations. Ministers do not (usually) sit on them and they are not meant to be mere rubber stamps for the government. But Harawira’s removal from the foreshore committee shows this government doesn’t care about good lawmaking.

  12. As The Dust Settles

    Written By:  Bill -  Date published: 10:06 am, October 26th, 2010 -  8 comments
    Categories: accountability, Environment, Media
    Tags: , , ,

    It appears that Bob Parker is about to kick up a storm by insisting that commercial buildings be either repaired or demolished by 31/01/11.  He should be reaping a whirlwind.

  13. Phil Goff: The Leader Emerges

    Written By:  Bunji -  Date published: 1:22 pm, October 18th, 2010 -  43 comments
    Categories: Economy, labour, Media, monetary policy, overseas investment, phil goff, Social issues
    Tags:

    Phil Goff made an excellent speech yesterday.  One that showed far more direction, and a lot of promise for going forward.  Hopefully Labour can capitalise on this much better than they did on the excellent “The Many, Not The Few” speech.  They should be able to – yesterday’s “Kiwi Dream” speech contained much more meat […]

  14. Principals join Standards opposition

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 12:30 pm, October 13th, 2010 -  9 comments
    Categories: education
    Tags: ,

    The New Zealand Principals’ Federation has launched their campaign against the Government’s National Standards. The weight of informed debate lies against the Standards achieving what they are purported to deliver. A growing number of education practitioners want the Government to go back to first principles and revisit the design of the Standards.

  15. Exporting Dunedin

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 9:45 am, October 11th, 2010 -  50 comments
    Categories: business
    Tags: , ,

    David Clark is the Labour Party’s new candidate for Dunedin North.  He’s been talking to innovative local technology start-ups, and hearing about some of the barriers to success.

  16. Michael Lhaws: pathetic little attention-seeker

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 10:24 am, October 10th, 2010 -  52 comments
    Categories: Media, racism
    Tags:

    Michael Lhaws has been a insecure little attention-seeker his whole life and, a lot like Paul Henry, he gets the attention he craves by voicing his prejudices. So, the revelation of his insults against the Governor-General are hardly surprising. They’re more of the brand of gratuitous racism we’ve come to expect from the pathetic little creep.

  17. Digested Read – Spirit Level 6: Future Options

    Written By:  Bunji -  Date published: 10:00 am, October 10th, 2010 -  11 comments
    Categories: equality
    Tags:

    The last in a series of 6 summarising the argument of The Spirit Level. This post looks at how we might achieve a more equitable future.

  18. Hickey on fighting the currency war

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 10:30 am, October 7th, 2010 -  18 comments
    Categories: Economy
    Tags: ,

    Bernard Hickey continues his politico-economic rebirth. Yesterday, he wrote on how New Zealand can protect itself from dangerous international capital flows that undermine our economy and our ability to choose our own path. We shouldn’t leave the guidance of our economy to the invisible hand of blind, fallible, and valueless markets.

  19. Short and sweet

    Written By:  Tammy Gordon -  Date published: 9:43 pm, September 29th, 2010 -  2 comments
    Categories: humour
    Tags:

    At the risk of following Bill’s excellent post with something  seriously lightweight, I just read this in the Listener and thought it was worth sharing for the pure joy of it … “Surely if anyone in the Act Party was going to impersonate a dead baby, it would be Rodney Hide” – comedian Dai Henwood […]

  20. Anne Tolley is a fool

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 12:00 am, September 29th, 2010 -  67 comments
    Categories: education, national
    Tags: ,

    Anne Tolley, Minister for wrecking primary education, doesn’t have the first or faintest idea of what “national standards” are actually going to mean in practice.  She is “appalled” at the idea of labelling children as failures.  But that is exactly what the standards are designed to do.

  21. “We’re all shades of sheep” – the Calvert interview

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 1:28 pm, September 25th, 2010 -  49 comments
    Categories: act, interview
    Tags: ,

    Check out Hilary Calvert’s interview in the ODT. It’s, um, extraordinary and hilarious. Calvert can’t remember whether she was ever a member of a different political party, when she first stood for ACT, or whether she has any convictions.

    More evidence of the depth of talent in ACT these days.

  22. Enviro commissioner: end miners’ free-ride in DoC estate

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 10:23 am, September 23rd, 2010 -  23 comments
    Categories: Environment, Mining
    Tags:

    Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright has released her Mining the Conservation Estate report. Among other important points,it asks what we asked during the Schedule 4 fight: Why do miners get to mine on conservation estate without paying a lease? No private land owner would give away their land like that.

  23. But will he make the trains run on time?

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 9:22 pm, September 22nd, 2010 -  27 comments
    Categories: poverty, public services
    Tags: , ,

    Parliament unanimously made Gerry Brownlee dictator. Apparently, this was necessary to save Christchurch. But are Dictator Gerry and Bob ‘the Rebuilder’ (wonder how long it took Kevin Taylor to come up with that one) actually delivering for the people who need it the most? Not if the anger in poor Christchurch suburbs is anything to go by.

  24. The next ACT

    Written By:  IrishBill -  Date published: 1:04 pm, September 22nd, 2010 -  52 comments
    Categories: act
    Tags: , , ,

    Key is strongly backing Hide.

    That might be because he doesn’t want to deal with the ideologues who would replace him. Or it might be because Hide knows where the skeletons are buried.

    Either way Key’s going to find it harder and harder to distance himself from the mess.

  25. Govt ignored advice to save lives with lower drink-drive limit

    Written By:  Zetetic -  Date published: 12:22 pm, September 21st, 2010 -  29 comments
    Categories: alcohol, same old national
    Tags: , , ,

    The government was told that lowering the drink-drive limit would save 33 lives and $238 million a year. They ignored it. Why? I reckon the only money they were worried about was donations from the booze barons. These idiots don’t bother with basic cost vs benefit analyses. It’s all about pay-offs for their mates. And donation kickbacks.

  26. The first diktats

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 8:07 am, September 21st, 2010 -  29 comments
    Categories: democracy under attack, housing, local government, transport
    Tags: , ,

    On Thursday, our new dictator Gerry Brownlee decreed by Order in Council that the following Acts of Parliament were amended: the Building Act,  the Local Government Act, the Resource Management Act, various pieces of transport legislation, and the Civil Defence Act. Most of the changes deal with minutiae of government. Some are less innocuous.

  27. Awatere-Huata & Garrett, what’s the difference?

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 9:24 pm, September 19th, 2010 -  75 comments
    Categories: act, rodney hide
    Tags: , ,

    ACT’s lost two List MPs. When Donna Awatere-Huata was booted out,  Rodney Hide took her to court to force her out of Parliament. Now, David Garrett is forced to resign and Hide says he won’t push him to leave Parliament. Why the kid-gloves for Garrett? Because Hide’s leadership matters more to him than the future of his party.

  28. Do I stay or do I go?

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 8:32 pm, September 16th, 2010 -  105 comments
    Categories: accountability, activism, democracy under attack, greens, labour
    Tags: , , ,

    The Labour and Green parties’ activists are in uproar over their parliamentary wings’ decision to vote for the Gerry Brownlee Enabling Act. A lot of people are saying they won’t campaign for these parties and talking of voting for a minor party or independents. Is it time to damn them and leave them? No. We’re going to win our parties back.

  29. Ralston Attempts Hijack of Radio NZ SuperCity Debate

    Written By:  Bunji -  Date published: 1:57 pm, September 13th, 2010 -  36 comments
    Categories: auckland supercity, john banks, len brown, spin
    Tags:

    In the lecture theatre that the Radio NZ SuperCity debate was held this morning Len Brown clearly and easily won – but how did it appear on radio?

    Bill Ralston and his coterie did his best to even up the perceptions…

  30. On the edge of a second recession, Greens have a plan, Nats don’t

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 10:31 am, September 3rd, 2010 -  53 comments
    Categories: Economy, housing, jobs
    Tags:

    20,000 more Kiwis’ jobs are at risk as commercial building construction grinds to a halt. The Greens have a plan to divert money from low-quality spending on motorways to high benefit to cost spending on housing that will save those jobs and give Kiwi families a better standard of living. That’s the kind of visionary economic leadership we need. We’re not going to get it from National.

  31. Standards fiasco and more National lies

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 7:07 am, August 27th, 2010 -  14 comments
    Categories: education, national
    Tags: ,

    At what point, I wonder, will National figure out that they’re in a hole over “national standards” and finally stop digging? At what point, I wonder, will National stop lying to us that the parents of insert region here are supportive of national standards?

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